Published 7:12 am, Thursday, October 9, 2014

Back in the mid-1980s when we walked through the streets of Ireland’s Galway the first time, I felt like I had been time-warped to my childhood.

Parking meters along the downtown village streets were identical to the ones we fed nickels to when I was 10. When I first saw them in Galway, I felt like I had stepped into a set for a Jimmy Stewart movie.

When my wife shopped in one of Galway’s fine lace and linen shops three decades ago, the cash register in that upscale establishment was identical to the ones that rang up (literally) our purchases in Kerrville’s JC Penney store right after World War II.

Shopping in Galway in the 1980s made us feel like we had turned back the clock to the 1940s.

Those ancient mechanical cash registers have been replaced by credit card readers that make ours at home seem old-fashioned.

Thirty years ago we encountered bands of unhappy youth clustered on downtown corners. They were turning 20, unemployed, broke, and nobody seemed to care or to know what to do about it.

Today every able-bodied Irishman in Galway seems to have two jobs or more. Everyone seems to be busy and prosperous. From what we saw, Galway now seems to welcome workers from neighbor nations.

What we remembered as a rustic, hobbit-like town has been transformed into an industrial hub for the nation. Travel expert Rick Steves says that Galway is now Ireland’s fastest growing city.

I think we saw half of the new residents on the downtown streets every night. In the 1980s Galway rolled up the streets when the sun went down, not unlike most rural West Texas towns at that time.

In 2014 the downtown streets come alive when the sun sets. They have been turned into malls awash with people old and young. Restaurants and pubs are packed, sidewalk cafés overflow as the thrum of loud bands resonates through center city late into the night.

That’s how God made our world. Nothing stays the same for long. Some spend their years grousing about the changes. Others go through life celebrating the shifting scenery. Which one are you?

Gene Shelburne may be addressed at 2310 Anna St., Amarillo, TX 79106-4717 or at GeneShel@aol.com. Get his books or magazines at www.annastreetchurch.com. His column appears weekly.